Another
great time was had by all at this year's 4th of July Special Event station at
Fort Missoula. Setup proceeded smoothly in spite of the distracting smell of
bacon cooking next to the museum. Lewis (AC7UZ), Paul (N7PAS), Mike (KE7IZG),
and Craig (KE7NO) set up a 200 foot dipole through the trees on one end and
attached to the future trolley station on the other.

Together
with Bill's (W4YMA) mobile setup around thirty-two contacts were made on 20
meters through much fading. Around three hundred members of the public were
able to witness and talk to local hams in action on both HF and VHF.

ARRL TELLS RED
CROSS OF REMAINING BACKGROUND CHECK POLICY CONCERNS
ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, has written to Armond
T. Mascelli, Vice President for Domestic Disaster
response for the American Red Cross (ARC) to identify the ARRL's
remaining concerns over the background check policy for ARC partners. Harrison
emphasized that the commencement of negotiation of a replacement Statement of
Understanding (SOU) between the two organizations should not be further delayed
while these concerns are resolved and that he looked forward to signing a new
SOU once
additional edits to the background check Disclosure Form and clarifications of
the background check Authorization Form are in place
for those radio amateurs who volunteer their service to the Red Cross.Harrison first wrote to Mascelli on November
28, 2007, setting out the ARRL's concerns with the
background check procedures recently implemented by the ARC. ARC now requires a
background check for Amateur Radio volunteers seeking to support a Red Cross
disaster relief response for more than a seven day period. In the ARRL's view, Amateur Radio volunteers were being asked to
consent to a more intrusive background check than was necessary or appropriate.Mascelli's reply on May 8, 2008, addressed
some of the ARRL's concerns and Harrison's latest
letter to the ARC -- sent on June 30, 2008 -- recognizes considerable
improvement in the forms related to the background check procedures that are
linked via the ARC's Web site; however, Harrison also
states that analysis of the forms has revealed two continuing problems:*
The Authorization for Background Investigation consent form still contains
"some highly equivocal and broad language which,
because of its ambiguity, will inevitably discourage substantial numbers of
radio amateurs from participating in the background
check process." This form was not included with Mascelli's
reply and was not seen by the ARRL until later.*
The "Disclosure Regarding Background Investigation" can still be
construed as overly broad, although this can be corrected by
fairly simple edits.Harrison told Mascelli, "We do not want
the implementation of these additional changes to further delay the negotiation
of the terms of a replacement SOU. A new SOU is, in my view, a critical and
urgent matter. Because the old SOU expired on September 16, 2007, the vacuum
thereafter has served neither ARRL nor ARC well." ARRL and ARC staff are
ready to work on a draft replacement SOU, the text of which will be reviewed by
the ARRL's Programs and Services Committee and
approved by either the Executive Committee or the Board prior to completion.Harrison concluded, "We look forward to continuing to provide
seamless disaster response communications by Amateur Radio and to enhancing and
expanding ARRL's proud partnership with the American
Red Cross. I look forward to meeting with you and executing the new SOU once
additional edits to the Disclosure Form, and adequate clarifications are
included in the Authorization Form that appears on your web site for partner
organizations are made, and when the new SOU terms are agreed upon."

For
those of you who have not heard of our plans to move, we have sold the house
and will be moving to the Oxnard or Ventura CA areas by the end of July.
When we get the new address, etc, we'll try to get all the new information to
you all. However, we will be very busy with a yard sale, contacting the
mover, etc, etc, etc, so PLEASE, no emails for a couple of months -- we
are in a panic mode because the house sold fast (after waiting so long), so not
much time for checking or responding to emails.

HAM RADIO IS A REAL VALUE
(Originally published in AIRWAVES, The newsletter of the Sierra ARC, May 2008.)Mike Herr, WA6ARAAs a kid in the '60s I hung around my father, WB6MNX, and his ham buddies.
The talk in those days was pretty much similar to now, what features their new
rig had. But one thing I now note is that each ham had but one rig, yep, just
one rig. It was usually a HF rig, and it was used both in the house and in the
car. Before the 2 meter revolution everyone, except for the few brave
experimenters in the
VHF regions, was on the HF bands. But why did most ops have only one rig? The
answer is simple economics; radio equipment was expensive back then. As a novice I would lust over the Heathkit
"perfect" novice station, the DX-60B, HR-10 receiver and HG-10B VFO.
Wow! Ninety watts on CW or AM on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters (In my
Novice days we only had privileges on 80, 40 and 15 meter). But with a price
tag of $200 it was way out of reach for a lot of people, especially for a
teenager.Today ham radios are much cheaper and offer much more features than rigs
available to Amateurs in the mid 1960's. I cannot comment on every ham's
financial situation but when comparing selling prices, average salaries and
technological features, Amateur Radio is a bargain today.Let's take a look at the previously mentioned DX-60B, HR-10 and HG-10B
station. In 1965 it cost about $200, only offered two modes (AM and CW), took
up an entire desktop and it generated enough heat to warm half the house.
Adjusted for inflation the "perfect" Heathkit
novice station would cost $1,323.00 today! Compared to entry level radios
today that offer 100 watts on all Amateur bands, all modes (AM, FM, CW, SSB and
digital), dual VFOs, general coverage receive and all
sorts of bells and whistles, not to mention outstanding dynamic receivers and
clean, stable transmitted signals, when adjusted for inflation, would have cost
less than half the price of the 1965 model.The Heathkit HW-101, an entry level SSB rig
for many operators during the '60s and 70s, sold as a kit in 1971 for
$350. In today's dollars that same unit would be $1,849, which buys a
heck of a lot more radio the old '101.The biggest bang for the buck is in a piece of equipment that we all use,
a 2 meter rig. Back at the time the 2 meter revolution was in
full swing FM transceivers were selling for about $300 to $500 which translates
to thousands of dollars today. There were a few
synthesized models but most were crystal controlled which meant purchasing a
pair of crystals, one each for transmit and receive for
each channel that you wanted to operate and were limited to two to ten
channels. They were about the size of a large book and operated at 2 to 5
watts output. Today you can buy a shirt pocket handheld or a 65
watt mobile transceiver, fully synthesized 100 channels, scanning, CTCSS
encode/decode, etc for what amounts to about $28 in 1971 dollars.Ham radio is CHEAP. In the 60s the typical ham had to work for a month
to buy a rig, today it is more like one week. I remember in
1965 when dad bought a SBE-34 and he had to buy it on time because it was just
so expensive. Compared to other hobbies and recreation, ham radio is a steal.
You can be on the air with the local repeater for about $150. A complete
100 watt HF station including an antenna is less than $1000. If you are a
builder, parts have never been cheaper or more available. A couple of minutes
on the internet and you can order parts and have them at your house in a couple
of days. No more waiting for the once a year trip to the Hamfest.
Of course you can spend tens of thousands of dollars creating the ultimate
station. There is no limit as to what you can spend on any
hobby but there a tremendous value to anyone who is attracted to Amateur Radio.
Let's compare Amateur radio to other past times. A
decent 4 wheel drive vehicle, with the extras to keep up with others in the
local 4 WD club might set you back $30K. That boat for water skiing or fishing
during the summer is about the same. How about the home computer? Again, about
the cost of a HF rig and you buy a new one every couple of years or so. Ham radio
cost a fraction of what it did in the past and offers twenty times the
features. So get out and enjoy ham radio and stop feeling guilty about the
money.

On Monday, June 9,
KE7SIA, Dave of Seeley Lake was successful passing his General
Class examination. Congratulations Dave.

Thanks to VEs N7GE,
K7VK, W7DHB, K7PX and WG7E.

At the HARC
meeting following the exam, WG7P, Elmer made a good point that the
noise should be kept down when a candidateis completing the test. I was remiss about correcting
this during the examination. Please assist
us in keeping future examination rooms quiet during testing.

There are five houses in five different
colors.In each house lives an
Amateur Radio Operator of a different License Class.These five hams are different ages, use different types of
antennas, and prefer different brands of radios.None of them are the same.

Well, summer is here with a vengeance. It's already
hit 100 degrees here in my area and looks like more to follow. These warm
days are an excellent time to pull down your antennas and give them a good
inspection, re-soldering any connection that looks stressed and checking out
hardware for cracks and loose parts.This also is a great time to inspect your towers for plugged drain holes
at the bottom of the legs where water might collect and begin to rust out the
tower legs. This is an insidious damage that can kill or injure anyone
who might climb the tower at a future time after the leg or legs have been
weakened by this rust. Most (but not all) commercial tower manufacturers
claim to have galvanized the inside of their tower section legs, but don’t bet
your life on it. I've seen several tower structures whose legs were full
of water and were damaged structurally. If you find one of these, don’t
climb it. Get some professional help and take down the tower, replace it
with a new bottom section and be sure the legs pass water out of them at the
base. To ignore this problem can be deadly. If you are like many
amateurs and use a tower section set in concrete for your base, be sure and
place a few inches of gravel in the bottom of the hole before pouring your
base. That will provide a good drainage path for any moisture that might
travel down the legs to collect at the bottom of the base.Glacier Hamfest is next week. Sounds like a great sign up for this year, nearly that of last.
With fuel prices as high as they are, it has been a concern that some might not
be able to afford the trip. Hope to see as many as possible there.
Tailgate sales will be available, so bring your old gear and anything else
you'd like to sell or trade. A small percentage will go to the Hamfest to help support it. WIMU Hamfest
will be the first weekend in August at Jackson Hole, WY. This is always a
great gathering and worth the trip if you can make it.The Butte ARC is holding their annual Trivia Picnic at noon on August
2nd at the Cardwell Campground. The campground is located right at the
bottom of the Cardwell hill on I90. For more info, contact Bill, W7ROE in
Butte.Bring your trading stock or
gear you'd like to sell.MTN-W7MPK, QNI-1935, QTC-80, IMN-VE7DWG, QNI-425, QTC-66, MSN-K7YD, AE7V, QNI-176

John Locke— Will talk about his experiences during
Hurricane Katrina and how ham radio helped or could have helped during that
disaster. His strike team was the first strike team to arrive in New Orleans,
and was overwhelmed with work the entire time he was there.

We hope the HELLGATESTATIC was interesting for you this month.Let us know if this newsletter is to
your acceptance.So far, I’ve only
heard good things.If there is
something YOU would like to see, or
that you feel is overdone, please let me know.This is the Hellgate Amateur Radio Club newsletter, not
mine!If you
have something (even a simple one-liner) please write to me at our address or
e-mail me (Craig, KE7NO) at twincreek@blackfoot.net.

As was said earlier, it is summer.The rivers are still running a wee bit high, but as we saw
earlier this week, the fires are beginning to burn here.The temperatures are up, and so is the
price of gasoline.You could use
this as a fine opportunity to clean up your shack (or totally rearrange like
Steve KK7UV is doing).Antennas
always need maintenance, whether it is a yagi, a
¼ wave vertical, a 20 meter beverage, or even a simple 40 meter
dipole.When was the last time you
changed out your coax?Water is
amazing, especially the way it finds its way into 50 ohm feedline!If you have a tower, take the time to
read the Montana Monthly Summary by Doug Dunn, K7YD.Don’t forget about the likelihood of summer lightning
storms!

If you have the time to make it to the Glacier-Waterton Hamfest,
I hope you find everything you are looking for.If not, there will be more to come, for example, Spokane in
September.

The Blackfoot River clean-up and the Missoula Marathon are the
“big” club events left this month.Whatever you do, enjoy the warmth and remember that too much snow could
be five months away.

My wife and I send our best wishes to Dennis, W7DHB, and his
lovely wife June.We will miss you
and hope that you will enjoy your new home in California.Our best 73.